Well, it's true. Obama's election was epochal. One of my SIngaporean students here, a former political journalist, turned to me on election day and said (in that wonderful half-Oxbridge accent that many Singaporeans have): "All right, I'll admit it. Americans are cool again."
So everything you say is true, except perhaps your last sentence.
Watching the health care debate in America -- especially watching it from afar, as I am now -- I am more than ever convinced that the governing process in America may be irretrievably broken. Not the electoral process; that indeed worked just fine. But can anyone govern America? That there are actually people who think it's just fine for their fellow Americans to have no health care, and who will resort to so many spurious, inane arguments to stop them from being covered, says a lot about why the process has gone awry.
America isn't just a place where most people are
trying to grab as much as they can -- they're also trying to make sure that no one else is getting even a small slice of the pie. They're operating under the sick and pathetic illusion that they'll be better off if some people get crushed under the wheel of poverty.
These grasping people are so afraid that they will resort to the most desperate lies. And this atmosphere of fear is the worst of the many poisonous legacies left behind by the Republican Party. I'm not just talking about the criminal George W. Bush; I'm going all the way back to Joseph McCarthy. (I would refer to McCarthy as a slimy, oozing pustule, except that it would be an insult to slimy, oozing pustules.) The GOP only survives by creating phony bogeymen, then stoking everyone's fear -- and it's been that way for 60 years now.
And if Obama, the most talented politican America has seen in many, many years, can't convince people to work together for a goal whose virtues should be self-evident, then I have no idea who could.
Blue Mind Overseas
Incidentally, way cool that you used the title of a Gil-Scott Heron song as the heading for this post.
There's an artist who was -- and remains -- way ahead of his time.
I wish I could write as well as you guys, but since I can't, I'll just enjoy reading what you two write, and then adding a comment or two. The only thing I will add here is don't write off Obama yet, Bill. He hasn't lost this fight yet, and I get the impression he will not allow himself to lose. He may make some compromises that will somewhat dilute his vision, but in the end, I believe he will win. Because, like Bruce, I never thought he would become President and yet, here he is. I have come to believe in "the most talented potitician America has seen in many, many years." And I believe that millions of Americans agree with me, they are just not as vocal as the "know-nothings." Check out facebook for a pretty good sampling of what I'm talking about.
David --
Needless to say, I truly hope that, in the long term, you're proven to be right and that my comments will turn out to have been incorrect.
For the time bring, however, I'm reminded of the old story that, if you have one crook in a room, you call him a criminal. If you have a bunch of crooks in the room, you might call it a conspiracy. And if you have 535 crooks in a room, you might call it the United States Congress. God willing, these clowns will get out of the way and let President Obama get something done.
Bill
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